Magical Nature: The Nature Photography of the Year. Only One Month to Enter!

Published by Mountainblog on .

magical nature

 

The contest Magical Nature | The Nature Photography of the Year is hosted by Association of Slovenian Nature Photographers and is open to amateur as well as professional photographers from around the world.
Members of the jury, members of the competition management group and their nearest relatives are not eligible for participation. Every participant can submit up to 20 digital photographs. They can be distributed at her/his wish, but no more than 4 in each category. The same image can not be submitted to more than one category. Photographs which were sent to the contest in previous years, regardless if they were selected or not, will be disqualified.

Categories:

1. Mammals
2. Birds
3. Other (except mammals or birds)
4. Plants (including lichens, mushrooms, etc.)
5. Natural Landscapes
6. Man and Nature

Closing date: February 21, 2022
The total prize value will be higher than 4000 €

Photo galleries from previous contest HERE

Participation

The competition can be entered only online, over www.photonature.si First you upload pictures in jpg format with 1920 pixels on horisontal side (horizontal pictures) or 1080 pixels on vertical side (vertical pictures). A single file must not exceed 2Mb and it must contain original metadata added by camera.

Original files (RAW or original JPG) will be requested for entries reaching the final stage. Instructions will be send with the request. Pictures which original files will not arrived until original files dead-line will be eliminated from the contest.

Calendar

  • Entry start date: November 2021,
  • Closing Date: 21th February 2022,
  • Judging: 26 February – 05 March 2022,
  • Request for original RAW files start date: 10 Mar 2022,
  • Request for original files dead-line: 17 March 2022,
  • Contest results: 24 March 2022,
  • Award ceremony: May 2022, National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Večna pot 111

Selection process and awards

Jury will select 180 images (30 from each category), which will be presented in public slide-show on award ceremony. Those will be officially accepted images of the contest.

The jury will select one winner in each category who will receive a prize money of 300€ and 9 runners-up, who will receive Highly Commended award. The winning photographers from each category will have to send a short description of circumstances in which she/he took the picture, to be included in book. Among winning images jury will select one overall winning image and one winning image made by a Slovenian author, which will receive a title “Nature Photography of the Year” and/or “Slovenian Nature Photography of the Year”.

Author of Nature Photography of the Year will receive a prize money of 500€ and special prize: 4 days Photo-Tour worth 800€. The sponsor of special prize is slovenianbears.com

Special benefits for all the participants of Magical Nature contest: -10% off for Photo-tours and -10% off for Photo-hides. Sponsor of these benefits is slovenianbears.com.

Authors of all 60 winning images (winning and commended) will be asked to send full resolution (at least 3000 x 2000 pixels) images, which will be printed in book. NEW in 2021! Magical Nature begins a collaboration with the IRCC association which aims to assure the credibility of the context of nature photography through the certification of images authenticity.

The RAW/JPEGs of finalists photographers will be analyzed and verified by IRCC software. As organizers of the competition, we receive a favorable or unfavorable opinion from the IRCC and Magical Nature is the sole judge of whether the photo will be selected and included in awarded list of images and catalogue or not. We recommend all participants to test your images at www.ircc.photo under voluntary basis for guarantee of admission.

Entry Fee

An Entry Fee in amount of € 30.00 which will be used exclusively for production and printing of high quality hard cover book is mandatory for each entrant. Each entrant will receive book on provided mail address. Entries received without Entry Fee will not be judged. Payment can be made through PayPal system on address contact@photonature.si or directly on Bank Account: SI56192005013124710, Deželna Banka Slovenije d.d. Kolodvorska 9, Ljubljana.

The Jury

Selection will be made by international jury of renown nature photographers:

1. Davorin Tome, Slovenia – Chairman of the Jury

2. Perdita Petzl, Austria

3. Paco Membrives, Spain

4. Marjan Artnak, Slovenia

 

First prize 500 € + Brown Bear Photo tour worth 800 €

Authorof Nature Photography of the Year will receive a prize money of 500€ and special prize: 4 days Brown Bear Photo-Tour worth 800€. Special benefits for all the participants!

 

Hardcover book for each participant of the contest

The jury will select one winner in each category who will receive a prize money of 300€ and 9 runners-up, who will receive Highly Commended award. All this pictures will be included in the book which will be received by each participant of the contest.

 

Presentations of awarded photos

All selected photos will be presented on more than five exhibition traveling across Slovenia and in neighboring countries.

INFO: Magical Nature